HANDS UP!  - Mediterranean Heterotopies #1

Mediterranean Heterotopies focuses on ClubMed Achziv, a site which failed to maintain itself as a utopia for visitors from across the world. A piece of land that is repeatedly being abandoned.
Achziv (in Hebrew: I will disappoint) coastal strip lies between the Israeli northern city of Naharia, and the Lebanese border. Achziv strip contained the ruins of a Palestinian village الزيب), Az-zeeb), an abandoned ClubMed camp, a nature reserve, bathing beach open to the public, and a self-declared micronation (Akhzivland), founded in 1972 by Eli Avivi.
Evidence of human settlement at the site dates back to the 18th century BC. By the 10th century BC,
it was a prosperous and fortified Phoenician town.

This beach is part of the landscapes I could see from my window as a child, and which were of fantasies, imagination and familiarity, sometimes colored in terror and bombing. The perception of that strip was always boarded by the sea from one side, and the northern Lebanese mountains from another.
I am approaching this piece of land as a distantly related visitor, trying to capture a few moments initiated in different eras, and curate them in one spatial sense. using the stage to rethink them. bringing together different narratives and perceptions, forgotten memories and myths. Questioning the ability of a place to set free out of its own destiny.

Documentations of the unique architecture, interviews with past workers, archeology study group, visits to the sites as it stands abandoned today – are all part of the rehearsal process. making choreography about a place in order to study a place. Remembering it as a performative action.

The project's first output: “Hands Up!” was presented on Kelim Festival at Kelim choreography Center, Bat Yam, Israel (May 2022).
Performers: Noa itzhaki, Uri Duvdevani, Eynav Rosolio.
Sound design: Galia Einey.
Light Design: Baruchi Shpigelman.
Light Object: Ofer Laufer.
Special Thanks to Nethanel Rinon.


The piece was supported by Yehoshua Rabinovitch Tel Aviv Foundation for the Arts, and  Kelim choreography Cente.
Pics by Tamar Lamm and David Kaplan. Archive pics by Steve Tomas.